If you want to join the eyeroll, read along. If you’re had your fill of stupidity lately, feel free to pass…
“People usually gain weight because they overeat, but what makes them overeat?” is inclined to give me a groan. The rest of the article doesn’t do much to change that:
In the study, researchers recruited 34 obese patients who were candidates for bariatric surgery and 18 people of normal weight for comparison. The scientists placed cotton rolls on each side of the mouth and under the tongue of each participant.
Then, after measuring the baseline levels of saliva by placing a small amount of water on the volunteers’ tongues, they conducted 10 lemon juice tastings at regular intervals and measured the salivary changes that occurred.
Although the groups did not differ in their baseline responses to the water stimulus or in their initial responses to the lemon juice, the normal-weight participants experienced a greater decrease in salivation over time in response to the lemon juice, while the responses of the bariatric surgery candidates did not decrease significantly.
“It’s going to be longer before they stop eating,” Dr. Bond said of the protracted salivary response.
But he noted it is not clear whether the slower habituation response is a cause of obesity or a feature of it.
Am I the only person who reads this and thinks, “Lemon juice? Why lemon juice?”
Or that salivating a lot over lemon juice might be the response of someone who is hungry?
Am I alone in wondering if perhaps these “candidates for bariatric surgery” might have been hungry because they’re dieting? Or that this “slower habituation response” might be a feature of dieting?
Btw: I didn’t find the study itself online, but another article is here.
Living ~400lbs 
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